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Creamy mushroom soup

Ramadan is only a day away!

If you celebrate it , then Ramadan mubarak to you 🙂 and if you don’t and would like to know a little more about it,read on.

Ramadan is the month in which muslims around the world fast from dawn till sunset . The fast means no eating and no drinking throughout the day but that is not all. Fasting means that the whole of you, body and soul is fasting. Your hands are fasting, you can’t do harm or steal or hurt others. Your eyes are fasting, you are not allowed to watch anything inappropriate. Your tongue is fasting, you are not allowed to lie or gossip. You see, Ramadan is meant to teach you that you are in control, you can control your hunger, thirst along with your anger, desires and everything that you are. Observing Ramadan is a spiritual and moral boot camp if you will. Fasting teaches you that if you set your mind to it, you can do anything.

In the past few years, across a number of posts and recipes I have shared a little about the reasoning behind this month long fast , I tried to answer some FAQ that I receive from readers, and I tried to explain a little about the fact that Ramadan not only comes with instructions for fasting but it also comes with instructions for feasting that are wonderful to apply all year round. So, if you are interested in exploring a little more about Ramadan, please do check them out, and if you have any other questions that I have not answered, please leave me a comment or send me an email 🙂

With the fast extending over 15 hours each day and since summer is already in full blast here with temperatures soaring over 40 C. Soups and salads take center stage in my iftar menu. After a long day, they help give the body a healthy and refreshing dose of nutrients that is easy to digest .

My family and I ,love creamy soups, the velvety texture and the richness is so comforting yet the idea of all the calories and fat in regular cream is scary!Not to mention that after such a long fast, all the cream and butter can feel extra heavy and hard to process.

My secret to getting the same creamy texture without all the fat and with an added bonus of fiber and nutrients is to use oats!

I know the idea might sound strange at first but trust me, it works perfectly! Just give it a go and you can thank me later!

When I first came to the UAE and was trying to find replacements for the brands that I used in Jordan that are not available in the UAE a particular brand caught my attention with their unique packaging. They made different types of flour, oats and they also produced eggs. What I loved about their packaging was the fact that they used bright colors and hand drawn doodles. Their flour bags are covered with little doodles and little notes about their products written with a font that resembles handwriting. The packages felt like they were made with a lot of love and I remember thinking that this must be a family business because of their unique vibe and the level of care that went into every little detail in their packages. Fast forward 3 years, they contacted me this year and asked me to make 2 recipes using their product, with the email came the story of the company and it turns out I was right 🙂

Jenan (which is arabic for gardens) is a company that produces flour, oats and eggs. They established the first mill in the UAE in the 1970s. Through hard work and their passion for their products, they have grown to a company that mills over 360,000 tonnes of flour a year. That’s enough to make 600 million loaves of bread!
I love working with family owned local companies, the passion and dedication they put into their products are a joy to witness and interact with.

Next add the mushrooms and saute for 5-7 minutes stirring occasionally

Sprinkle the flour and stir for 3-5 minutes ,doing that will give the flour and the soup a slightly nutty flavor

Add the chicken stock or water, milk, oats, salt and white pepper. Cook for 7- 15 minutes more or until the soup thickensNotes:You can add all of the optional additions or some of them in the final 5 minutes of cooking. The paprika will change the color of the soup but it will give it a beautiful smoky note
You can also add boneless chicken cubes to the soup, just add them with the onions in the beginning and continue the steps as written

22Comments

Thank you for sharing this post and recipe! The soup looks delicious and I’m really intrigued that you added quick oats! Also thank you for taking the time to explain Ramadan. I had no idea it extended beyond food fasting!

Oh Sawsan – what a lovely and interesting post for the weekend and I have everything at home to make the soup, oats included 🙂 ! Have never used those! And thank you for explaining Ramadan again so simply and clearly . . . and Mubarak Ramadan to you and your family . . . may you manage in the increasing heat of UAE . . . much love . . . [oh, shall be using brown mushrooms and coconut milk: let’s see whether there is a happy marriage!!]

Hello, how interesting to use oats to thicken soups! The quick-cooking kind we have in the US has very large flakes of oats that would be very noticeable in this soup. Are your oats similar, and do they drastically alter the texture of the soup?

Ramadan Kareem from Qatar. We typically don’t open fasts with soups, but when we visit the iftar buffets there is always lentil soup there that is pretty amazing. Do you have any recipes for drinks that help with quenching the thirst after a long day of fasting?

What a lovely story about the products that you enjoy in the UAE and how nice that they asked you to create a unique recipe for one of their items. Using oats to thicken is a great idea, but I never would have thought it would impart the creamy texture that using cream would, so creative. Thanks again for the lesson about Ramadan, Ramadan mubarak to you! What a lovely sentiment to reboot one’s ethics, the entire world can use a little of that too! And I take my hat off to you, I am not sure I would be able to not drink water in 40°C temperatures — I would definitely get grumpy and have a big headache!